Yaesu 8800 Interfernece Problems

[DKC14]

Hello Ham World.

Im a newly licensed Ham operator in Canada. I installed my Yaesu 8800 into my 99 Jeep Cherokee 2 days ago, mounted the antenna (Larsen NMO 2/70cm). I like the equipment being used, yet I have one problem.

Everytime I key up, while my vehicle is running my oil pressure drops to zero, and my check gauges light comes on. I know my actual oil pressure isnt dropping, just the gauge is being interfered with. I tried moving my antenna to different spots, and tried grounding it to many other things, but nothing.

The interference is only when Im in Simplex (ie: 146.510) and when I get into the UHF side of things, there isnt any interference.

I know you can buy snap on chokes or RF suppressors, but my question is if there is anything else I can do before I go out and buy any RF suppressors or chokes?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

73's.

DKC14

[5B4AJB]

First, check the SWR isn't too high.

Make sure the antenna has a good ground connection to the chassis (try both ends).
Ground the radio again to the chassis.

Good, cheap grounding wire is the braiding from (RG58) coax, or use mains cable, thicker cable is better. Solder tag washers to the ends and use screws to mount the cable, bare wires don't usually last very long on a vehicle.

Failing that, you'll have to shield/ground the sensors/guages somehow.
Maybe you can wrap them in a plastic bag, then wrap that in tinfoil, then another plastic bag. Make sure you don't cause any shorts!!!

[John_D]

To add extra filtering to the leads from battery to the rig, place ferrite rings around them.